Huan Gao
Assistant Professor
About Dr. Huan Gao
Dr. Huan Gao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Instruction and Curriculum Leadership at the University of Memphis. Her scholarly work is centered on the intersections of digital literacies, multilingualism, transnationalism, and educational diversity. Through her ethnographic studies, Dr. Gao explores how migrant children, families, and communities engage with digital information and media. She aims to understand these groups’ literacy practices within the broader contexts of transnational movements, identities, and the global media landscape. The primary goal of her research is to enhance educational practices by leveraging the rich cultural and linguistic assets of diverse student populations, thus promoting their academic, social, and identity development in an increasingly intercultural world.
Dr. Gao earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Florida, where she specialized in Languages and Literacies Education and concentrated on Educational Technology. She was a recipient of the Literacy Research Association's Student Outstanding Research Award in 2022 and the NCTE’s ELATE Geneva Smitherman Cultural Diversity Grant in the same year. In 2024, she was honored with the NCTE Early Career Educator of Color Leadership Award. Her work continues to be published in esteemed journals such as Linguistics and Education, Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, and the Journal of Information Literacy.